Modern day Marlowe???

"You can't be a private investigator without having police contacts. It's impossible. I had hundreds of them."

"At least 10 times in this case I've been offered a plea bargain. It's not going to happen,"

"I won't be a rat for anyone no matter what the consequence is to me."

"If I spend the rest of my life in prison, so be it."

Someone just finishing “The Long Goodbye” may very well think these quotes came directly from the text of the book when in reality they were spoken by Anthony Pellicano, former private investigator to the stars, who was recently arrested in connection with a wiretapping scandal involving Hollywood celebrities. I came across the article while reading stories from my local hometown newspaper (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CA_HOLLYWOOD_WIRETAPS_INTERVIEW_CAOL-?SITE=CAANR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT). Prior to his most recent arrest Pellicano had served a 2 ½ -year prison sentence after FBI raided his house and found military grade C-4 explosives, reportedly in quantities capable of bringing down a passenger size airplane (http://www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/anthony_pellicano.htm). This came after he was hired by Steven Seagal to do a little dirty work. In one interview I read regarding his chosen profession he reportedly stated, "I could have been a criminal just as easily." Keep in mind that in no way am I vouching for the validity of these randomly acquired quotes, but the more I think about it, the less important the truth becomes. The idea alone is enough to sustain my interest. It is this culture of hardboiledness that is so intriguing. “I could have been a criminal just as easily”. That’s a frightening statement at best. One might believe the lives of criminals and the lives of private investigators are complete opposites, but this assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality private investigators, which some might argue are only a few coworkers away from being police officers, straddle the problematic line distinguishing right from wrong. What implication does this have for the rest of us? Nothing really. This isn’t something new. Those of you who may have believed the introductory quotes came from “The Long Goodbye” can attest to that fact. Fifty plus years and the waters of scandal and tough private dicks are nonetheless murky.

STEVEN SEAGAL…WHAT COULD HE POSSIBLY NEED HELP WITH. HE PRACTICALLY OWNS THE WORLD!